Metallica will celebrate Record Store Day (April 18) this year by reissuing their 1982 demo tape, No Life ‘til Leather, in its original cassette form (yes, that rectangular plastic thing.) Announcing the news on their website, the band says they’ve remastered the original source material to bump up the sound quality, but have kept the mixes untouched so fans can experience the demo tape as it was heard back in '82.

Drummer Lars Ulrich spoke with Rolling Stone about the reissue, "Twelve people will be able to play it, but everybody else will be able to hold it in their hands and, uh, have a great time with it," Ulrich said, laughing. The demo has never been commercially available until now, and to prepare for the April 18 release, those interested in actually playing the tape can buy a cassette player for as little as 10 dollars over on Amazon.

Fans can expect No Life 'til Leather to be the first of several reissues from Metallica’s catalogue, all of which will be coming from the band's label Blackened Recordings. The re-releases are something Ulrich says the band has been thinking about doing for awhile, "It's time for us to put out some next-level reissues and do the song and dance of the catalog that everyone else has done; the U2s and the Led Zeppelins and the Oasises," Ulrich continues. "Instead of starting with Kill 'Em All in 1983, we figured we'd go back another two years to when the band was formed in 1981."

So what was life like for the original Metallica lineup back in the early ‘80s? Ulrich, who was only 18 at the time of the demo’s creation, reminisced, "We drank a lot of sh--ty beer and had a foray into some nasty peach schnapps or some weird schnapps and liqueurs," he stated. "We'd play gigs and see bands on the L.A. circuit and feel like we didn't belong, like we were outcasts and misfits in our Iron Maiden T-shirts, almost like second-class citizens. But there was a unity in what we were doing, and it was a lot of fun. We were all equally outcasts, loners and metalheads. There was strength in that."

Those interested in picking up the limited edition cassette, No Life ‘til Leather, can head to RecordStoreDay.com for a list of independent retail stores taking part in the day.